President Obama’s Aunt, Zeituni Onyango, Dies At 61

The Obama family suffered a lost today. Barack Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, passed away at age 61. According to sources, she was being treated for cancer and respiratory problems at a Boston rehabilitation center at the time of her death.

The Associated Press reports, Onyango, the half-sister of the president’s late father, made headlines during Obama’s 2008 election due to her immigrant status. She moved to the U.S from Kenya in 2000 and stayed illegally for years. Attorney Margaret Wong, who represented Onyango during her imagination case and announced the news of her passing, described her client as an “awesome, funny, shrewd, smart lady born at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“If she was only born in America or born in more Western open society instead of being bogged down by tribes, lineage and being a woman in Kenya, she could have been anything she wanted to be,” Wong said in a statement. “After her vilification by the press during the President’s campaign, she fought hard for her legal status.”

She went on to say that Ms. Onyango become ill in January and died in her sleep.